Extended Solitary Confinement...lack of human contact, poor food and lack of medical attention all describe conditions we would expect in a Soviet gulag or in a rogue state. This shouldn't be happening in California, Governor Brown.

Wednesday July 31, 2013, 12:31 am
"When I hear how bad the conditions are in the SHU, I canít help but cry uncontrollably. Juan lives in a cramped, windowless cell for at least twenty-two and a half hours a day. He is let out of his cell only to exercise alone in a concrete enclosure and to shower three times weekly. He is allowed no phone calls and may only receive one package per year. His food is often cold and rotten. Juan has started to developed phobias due to not having normal interaction with humans. His eyesight is slowly being affected, from not being in sunlight for days, which has made him pale and severely Vitamin D deficient. His physical deterioration has caused a sleep disorder as well. He says that being in the SHU feels like psychological torture.

Juan might as well be in Guantanamo Bay -- he is subject to indefinite detention in solitary confinement, and we have no way of knowing if or when heíll ever leave. Thanks to policies created by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, people can be put into the SHU based on scant evidence that they canít even refute because prison officials often wonít tell them what it is."

Wednesday July 31, 2013, 12:33 am
"Now, more than 30,000 prisoners across California have gone on hunger strike to protest the conditions at Pelican Bay State Prison. The movement to end these horrific conditions has actually lifted Juanís spirits. For the first time in a very long time, I feel hopeful that Juanís situation might change for the better -- but only if as many people as possible sign my petition asking Governor Jerry Brown to stop indefinite detentions in Californiaís Security Housing Units."

Make no mistake about it. I don't want to hear how they are in prison for a reason. If we, as a society want to become better we should not condone torture. How can we expect these people to become a better person when we have destroyed them? They can't. Stop this practice.